The Case of Detroit Basketball Fans vs. Messrs. Goodwill and Ellis, Et Al.

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By Jeff Moss
DetroitSportsRag@GMail.com
January 19, 2014

In the last few years of Joe Dumars’ tenure as Pistons President and General Manager, he has done a lousy job of signing free-agents, making trades, drafting, and hiring head coaches.

But the one thing at which Joe D. has ALWAYS excelled is his mastery of the media. And as any good leader/executive/dictator knows, once you control the media, you are as good as gold.

Through his many years in the Pistons front office, Dumars has been able to retain a Telfon-esque existence no matter who the local beat writers were at that moment in time. Chris Iott, Chris McCosky, A. Sharrod Blakely, the Two Vinces …. it has never mattered.

And Motown columnists have always adored the former Pistons shooting guard as well. Either because he was a great guest on their radio show and a friend (Bob Wojnowski) or because Joe bailed them out of a bad book deal with a $5,000 check (Rob Parker) or because they had a family member in the Pistons front office (Drew Sharp.)

And not only does Joe enjoy a monopoly on the local opinion makers, he also had the foresight to make nice with the NBA’s #1 national columnist, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

Usually for a sports executive to get fired from his job, the media has to put the heat on ownership. Because Joe has his own personal public relations hacks both in Detroit and across the country, that has never occurred.

There hasn’t been one call for Dumars’ head. Even recently, while his team has been underperforming, his new coach says he has no answers for the slide, and a team that was specifically built to make the postseason this year in the HORRIBLE Eastern Conference is on the outside looking in.

Dumars’ Svenjolly™-like (Elaine Benes) control over the media for the last two decades has never been more OBVIOUS than in the beat writers’ reaction to Joe’s atrocious choice of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope over Trey Burke.

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ALL of the embedded reporters have taken the same exact company line in response to the irate fan base that desired the 2013 NCAA Most Outstanding Player over the Georgia shooting guard.

They have defended Dumars with the following two points:

1) Pistons fans only wanted Burke because he went to Michigan.

2) If the fans really wanted a point guard, they should be bitching that Joe didn’t take Michael Carter-Williams, who is better than Trey Burke.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s all we have heard from Vincent Goodwill, Vince Ellis and David Mayo since the draft. If you think I am crazy, how about some proof?

The following is from a Freep chat on January 9, 2014 featuring Ellis:

Many took my stance on Burke as a knock and that he won’t be any good. I think Burke will be a good player – just not a franchise PG and seriously doubt he will ever make an All-Star game. Also I’m going to be blunt here: if Burke played at Syracuse, no one would be saying anything about him. Evidence? There’s a 6-6 PG from Syracuse (Michael Carter-Williams, my bet for ROY) who the Pistons also could have picked and no one says a peep about him. The Pistons really liked him, but thought they needed athletic wings (which they do). I also think KCP will be fine. Played very well last night until he hardly played in the second half. Puzzling.

And here was Puff the Magic Mayo’s take on Burke on MLIVE.com this past Friday:

One thing certain about the Pistons’ relationship with Trey Burke, the former Michigan point guard they didn’t draft, is that plenty of people who watch very little of the Pistons, or the Jazz, or the NBA, have an opinion on it.

It’s predicated on Burke’s collegiate success and college choice, of course. If the argument were based in the Pistons not taking the best available point guard, it would focus more on Philadelphia’s Michael Carter-Williams, also bypassed by the Pistons, who is having what appears to be a runaway Rookie of the Year season. Or, if Burke had played at Ohio State, you’d hardly hear a peep. Pistons fans with no pro-Michigan or anti-Michigan bias probably are the most accurate measure, but they are a small group and shouted down easily.

The only difficulty in reciting GoodShill’s opinion of the Burke draft snub is narrowing it down to a few posts. This lunatic has been on a mission to defend Dumars’ pick of KCP since the moment it was announced. Jay Carney isn’t as loyal to President Obama as this stooge is to the Pistons GM.

And trust me, I would post many more Tweets like this if I could afford the bandwidth. And after ALL of those missives, and literally dozens of other Burke/KCP obsessed comments, GoodShill had the AUDACITY to Tweet this on Friday evening ….

No. Dog. In. This. Race. Ohhhhhhhhhhh, okaaaaaay. And Roger Ailes doesn’t prefer the GOP over the Democrats when programming Fox News. Are you fucking kidding me with this lie?

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The guy has no dog in the race? This scumbag is the fucking dog’s JOCKEY for Christ’s sake!!!!!!

Don’t you think it is a little coincidental that all three beat writers have the EXACT same position on the KCP/Burke mess when that take is diametrically opposed to pretty much EVERYONE else on the fucking planet? And I will get to that conspiracy theory in a moment, but let me first tackle the arguments that the propagandist triumvirate keeps spewing all over the Intranets.

Let’s take them in the order I recited them earlier:

Pistons fans only wanted Burke because he went to Michigan

This embarrassing argument is easily deconstructed for anyone who is familiar with the history of Detroit sports and the draft.

When it comes to the Lions and Pistons — nobody pays attention to the Tigers and Wings because the NCAA is barely involved — Detroit sports fans have a pattern of galvanizing around one potential draftee. And it has NOTHING to do with geography.

Back in 1998, Lions fans were DESPERATE for the team to select Randy Moss when he started sliding down the board because of behavioral issues. Did Moss attend Grand Valley State or attend Inkster High? NOOOOO!!!! The freak was from West Virginia and was connected to Florida State, Notre Dame and Marshall. Dude was from everywhere BUT here, and yet Lions fans clamored for him.

In 2000, Detroit football fans were begging Lions management to trade up for running back Shaun Alexander because the franchise had no replacement for Barry Sanders. Remember when Alexander went to Southfield-Lathrup? Oh, that’s right. He was from KENTUCKY and attended ALABAMA!!!!

That same year, Dumars actually did draft a local product in Mateen Cleaves and a preponderance of Michiganders were incensed that Joe D. wasted his first round pick on a point guard whose collegiate skills clearly didn’t match the professional game™ (Tim Tebow).

Both Spartans and Wolverines fans were perplexed with the Cleaves pick from the moment David Stern read the Pistons draft card.

The Lions owned the first overall pick in the 2009 Draft and were basically on the clock from Halloween of the previous year. That offseason, the Lions debuted a new jersey with black accents at a Dunham’s Sporting Goods in Royal Oak, where an impromptu rally commenced. The dolts in attendance basically begged Lions management to select linebacker Aaron Curry over Matthew Stafford. Curry? He played college ball at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 572 miles from Ford Field.

Do the Two Vinces not recall what occurred a couple of years ago when DeMarcus Cousins started falling in the 2010 draft and Pistons supporters were going out of their minds hoping Dumars could swing a trade to move up and secure the mercurial center from KENTUCKY by way of MOBILE, ALABAMA!!!!!????

In 2012, Pistons fans FINALLY got their wish when Andre Drummond slipped to their team at #9 overall. Man, was that kid dominant at Royal Oak Dondero. Farmington Harrison never had an answer for Dre.

LISTEN, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS. It was just a coincidence that Burke was the “Chosen One” among the locals in 2013. Sooner or later, it was bound to happen since ….. ya know ….. Michigan and Michigan State produce their fair share of pro prospects!!!!!

If Burke attended San Diego State, led his team to the National Championship game, earned the Most Outstanding Player trophy and was a POINT GUARD, WE WOULD HAVE CRAVED HIM ALSO.

Do you know how I know this? Well, for one, all of the history I just provided you, which barely scratches the surface of potential examples. And secondly, EVERY Michigan State fan I know wanted Burke in Detroit as well.

Mike. Valenti. A Michigan State grad who has made a successful career out of Wolverine disdain and U of M trolling wanted Dumars to pick Burke over KCP.

YOUR WITNESS …….

And GoodShill, Ellis and Snoop Mayo believe this is all due to Maize-and Blue-colored glasses.

How fucking dumb are these people?

If the fans really wanted a point guard, they would be bitching that Joe didn’t take Michael Carter-Williams who is better than Trey Burke

This narrative is even more aggravating than the U of M bullshit. The reason why Pistons fans aren’t complaining that Joe D. passed on MCW is because NOBODY had the Pistons selecting him.

Most mock drafts had MCW going lower than the Pistons pick; he wasn’t projected to be this advanced offensively; and there was no groundswell of support from the fan base for the Orange point guard.

What these jackasses are basically saying is that we should be disingenuous liars and blame Dumars in hindsight for passing on the prohibitive Rookie of the Year favorite.

Sorry, we have a little more integrity than you conspirators.

Whining that Dumars whiffed on Carter-Williams would be no different than Pistons fans crying that the organization didn’t take Dwyane Wade back in 2003, or that the Lions fucked up by not drafting Tom Brady. Six times.

Hey, remember when we all knew Leonardo DiCaprio would be Hollywood’s biggest star in 2014 when he was on GROWING PAINS in 1991? Oh, right. The same number of people who predicted that were on record as labeling Michael Carter-Williams the next dominant PG.

In fact, the DSR has a current Syracuse student among our collaborators, and this kid was COMPLETELY opposed to the Pistons picking MCW because he saw the 6-foot-6 guard firsthand and thought he was incompetent offensively.

Of course, that goes against the beat writers’ conventional wisdom that location, location, location was the determining factor in Pistons fans’ desire for Trey.

And for the record, our Syracuse Insider can recognize talent. This is the girl he was nailing for a couple of years, so question his scouting eye at your own peril ….

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Yep. A professional model who was offered a full-frontal role in The Wolf of Wall Street. (Unfortunately, she turned down Martin Scorsese. Otherwise, she’d probably be dating Luke Brower right now.)

Whom am I going to trust? That young student, or a guy who thinks this is some sort of fashion statement?

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Anyway, because the fans are being intellectually honest, Goodwill and Ellis are now using it against them in the Burke argument. It is maddening. As I stated on Twitter last evening ….

Is it possible that GoodShill and Ellis are this awful, or is Dumars greasing them? How is it that every single person who has ever covered the franchise under Joe’s tenure has marched in lock-step with the Palace’s talking points?

We know that Dumars had no problem gifting Parker a large sum of money. And who, among other, more reliable sources, confirmed that story?

Terry Foster. A “journalist” who goes around bragging that he is GoodShill’s mentor.

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Or maybe Dumars is a Jedi Master and he just walks around press row playing mind tricks on these feeble-minded imbeciles.

And if you don’t believe the practice of these writers defending Dumars at all costs is at its apex, check out this exchange between Goodwill and his co-worker from Friday:

I mean, when you are getting called on the carpet by a dude who is most known for being non-confrontational, making Nutter Butter jokes, and playfully mocking Angelique Chengelis’ age …… you might want to go to your closet, get your sneaker collection, string all of the laces together ….. and HANG YOURSELF.

You’d think that Trey Burke was pork and Goodwill and Ellis were Orthodox Jews considering the lengths to which they will go to completely disassociate themselves from anything positive about #3.

In fact, the News and Freep BOTH had to go to their bullpen in order to find someone to write a pro-Burke piece prior to the Jazz’s only Auburn Hills appearance this year.

Shawn Windsor got the call from the Free Press and Rod Beard was given the responsibility by the News.

While GoodShill and Ellis wrote prop pieces for Caldwell-Pope on the same fucking day.

The criminals in Goodfellas did a better job of keeping the Lufthansa hijacking quiet than the Two Vinces have disguised their water-carrying for Dumars.

I haven’t seen such a contemptible defense of an obviously guilty party since Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro and Robert Kardashian were representing O.J. Simpson which, I guess makes Drew Sharp the Barry Scheck of Dumars’ damage control squad.

The same Drew Sharp who has constantly destroyed everyone in town — whether deserved or not — except Dumars. Why? Well, Not the Sharpest Drew is related to Scott Perry, who worked for years as an underling in the Pistons front office. Perry has since left for Orlando, so I am not sure of the explanation for a Tweet like this ….

Can you imagine? This is the NBA. And the Pistons have demonstrated an innate ability to blow 17-point leads and to recover from 17-point deficits this season. But Burke’s 20 point,12 assist performance should be downgraded because he didn’t do most of his damage until the third quarter?

But what would you expect from this Professional Troll, who never passes up a chance to take a shot at his alma mater and who NEVER recused himself from discussing an organization that employed a relative, or even divulged it to his poor audience?

And that Sharp Tweet minimizing Burke’s contribution on Friday night was Re-Tweeted by GoodShill because, of course it was.

I figured that the weekend of Detroit journalists shilling for Dumars was over, but then Ellis clearly couldn’t help himself on Saturday night with this passive aggressive shot at Burke ……

These lunatics constantly lie in wait for a poor Burke performance and then pounce, but this post was totally disingenuous even for these clowns. I mean, the Jazz were on the second game of a back-to-back on the road without their best player (Gordon Hayward) and the entire team had a rough night.

Burke was coming off the following point/assist totals in his previous four games before this clunker:

17-6
18-8
17-11
20-12

But god forbid Burke have an off-night, these vultures can’t refrain from displaying their true intentions.

Look, I don’t know what motivates Goodwill and Ellis. Are they on the take like Parker? Is there some quid-pro-quo between the Palace and these vagabond reporters? Do they want to make their masters happy in a misguided attempt for access? Are they loathe to criticize an African-American executive? Or are they just a couple of imbeciles?

Whatever the real truth is, there is no question that they are compromised in some regard; if you don’t believe I am correct, Wojo has two words for you:

Child, please.

If the case of The Basketball Fans of Detroit vs. Goodwill and Ellis were heard before a judge, we would have already received summary judgment.

And their appeal?

How about blocked?